Machining of MMC material

ABSTRACT

A component made from a material of metal matrix composite, a so-called MMC material, is manufactured by High Speed Machining, so-called HSM machining, of a workpiece or blank of MMC material to provide a predetermined shape. HSM machining is characterized in that the cutting tool operates at a very high speed in relation to the machined work piece, especially as compared to what is normally the case when using conventional machining techniques.

This application is a continuation of Ser. No. 09/207,142 filed Dec. 8,1998 U.S. Pat. No. 6,102,635.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a method for machining of work piecesmade of MMC material (Metal Matrix Composite) for shaping componentssuch as piston rods, pistons, brake discs and other mechanicalcomponents.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Construction materials referred to as MMC materials have become knownduring the latest decade. The MMC materials are composites formed from abinder material such as aluminum, titanium or alloys from these with areinforcement by admixture of fibers or particles from substances suchas silicon carbide, boron carbide or aluminum oxide. Typically, thereinforcement content is about 15% by weight to about 70% by weight ofthe MMC material.

MMC materials have very interesting properties, which may be tailoreddepending upon the field of use, whereby achieving advantages such asmaking a component lighter, stronger, more rigid and providing thecomponent with better endurance properties than what is possible toachieve by using conventional materials within the specific field ofuse.

Vehicle technology where fast moving parts, such as piston rods,suitably could be performed by means of these metal composites is anexample of a field of use for MMC materials. Vehicle manufacturersconstantly try to attain increasing performance with respect to fuelconsumption, emissions, vibrations, noise, comfort and the like.Essential with respect to all of these parameters is decreased weight,especially in non-resilient mass and in fast moving engine parts.Especially within competition activities where motor vehicles are used,the above mentioned properties for engine parts are very desirable.Piston rods represent, as mentioned, an example of such components wheredecreased weight is very favorable.

Within racing activities for vehicles light materials such as aluminum,titanium or coal fiber composites are generally used instead of stealfor the mentioned types of components.

Another interesting field of use for MMC products is brake discs forcars, trucks and trains.

One major drawback when using MMC material is that the material has beenvery hard to machine. When shaping a component employing a MMC material,methods such as casting the component in a mold which closelycorresponds to the finally completed shape of the component are applied.Another method is to use a forged work piece or a portion of an extrudedrod, whereby spark-machining of the surface of the component andconventional machining may be used to arrive at the final shape of thecomponent. Attempts have been made to produce, by example, piston rodsfor motorbikes by using conventional manufacturing machining methods.Hereby, the purpose of arriving at the desired component with itsdesired properties, such as lower weight, has been achieved. The use ofsuch a piston rod in an engine has given as a result an engine whichmore willingly moves into a higher gear and further induces lowervibrations to the engine. The problem is, however, that the costs formanufacturing the engine part are very high, which imply that the use isrestricted or limited to fields where the costs are of minor importance.

A number of patent documents disclose different methods for a finalstage shaping of components made by MMC materials. U.S. Pat. No.5,765,667 is here mentioned as one example. This patent describes amethod for manufacturing a component, in this example a disc brake, bymeans of casting the component to a shape which very closely correspondsto the final shape of the component, in order to, and this is distinctlyexpressed, as far as possible avoid the need for machining by cuttingtools. It is obvious for the person skilled in the art to avoid the needfor machining by cutting tools, as the MMC material, when it is composedof an aluminum base and reinforcement in the form of silicon carbideparticles contains exactly the composition which is generally used forgrinding cutting tools.

The silicon particles embedded in the MMC material have a devastatingeffect on the cutting tools when machining by the use of conventionalmachining technique, as the edges of the cutting tools rapidly are wornout by the grinding particles within the composite material.

The present invention discloses an unexpected solution to theabove-described problem.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

One aspect of the invention is based on a method of shaping a work pieceof a MMC material by means of what is referred to herein as High SpeedMachining (abbreviated HSM) whereby a component can be given its finalshape directly from the work piece by means of this machining method.The work piece may be forged, cast, being a piece of an extruded rod ora raw material produced in some other way.

High Speed Machining involves operating the cutting tool at a very highspeed in relation to the work piece being machined as compared to thecase of conventional machining technique. The cutting tools of currentinterest are preferably milling tools and drills.

As used herein, the term “high speed machining” (HSM) represents aprocess which differs from conventional machining methods. It happensthat the term is sometimes used to denote also conventional machining,where new methods appear to push the limits for conventional machiningto higher levels. However, this is not what is meant here as will beshown below.

HSM machining is characterized by:

very high cutting speeds,

high shear strain speed (the ability to separate a chip from the workpiece)

a very high effect density is generated in front of the cutting edge(typical value: MW/mm³),

at the chip forming process, a very high temperature prevails locally atthe cutting place,

the chip is flowing without being in contact with the cutting edge,

the shearing forces asymptotically approaches zero.

The following are some examples of the high cutting speeds when highspeed machining some materials according to the present invention:

aluminum about 3000 m/min (conventionally about 100-400 m/min),

titanium about 15000 m/min (conventionally about 15-100 m/min).

To find the correct cutting speed depends on the kind of material beingmachined to obtain the above-discussed states held to characterize highspeed machining. Such can be determined by persons skilled in the artwithout undue experimentation once aware of this disclosure.

When testing to determine an optimal cutting speed for an HSM machiningof a new material, the shearing forces can be studied. These forcesasymptotically approach zero when the criteria for the HSM machiningstate are attained. Thus, HSM state may be said to prevail when theshearing forces are decreasing with increasing cutting speeds. At saidHSM state, the objective is to determine an optimal cutting speed forthe machined material. At conventional machining, the shearing forcesare increasing with increasing cutting speeds. This means that, as it isnow understood, the shearing forces as a function of the cutting speedmay be represented by a curve having a global maximum (local maximums orminima may occur). If machining data is such that machining is performedat the increasing side of the curve, conventional machining prevails. Onthe other hand, HSM state prevails when machining is performed undersuch conditions that machining is performed at the decreasing side ofthe curve, or in other words: HSM machining prevails when the globalmaximum point is past.

Another advantage of using HSM machining is that the chip absorbs themajor portion of the heat generated at the cutting point, typically 80%,whereby a work piece is left essentially unaffected by the heatgenerated at the machining.

It has been discovered that high speed machining gives unexpectedly goodresults when used for MMC materials. Despite the high portion ofgrinding substances within the material it appears that the cuttingtools maintain their sharpness for a long time, as if they wereunaffected by the presence of the grinding substances in the MMCmaterial. The reasons behind this are not quite understood, as thecourses inside the material, that is, it is not quite known what is infact happening with the material at the cutting point in the case ofhigh speed machining the MMC material. One theory is that a chip beingcut from the material to a certain extent is brought to a liquid statein a limited space immediately in front of the edge of the cutting tooland that the grinding particles embedded, constituted for example bysilicon carbide, boron carbide or aluminum oxide, are carried away bythe formed charging without thereby coming into direct contact with theedge of the tool. This would be an explanation as to why the cuttingtools retain their sharpness, quite contrary to what applies toconventional machining.

Tests have been performed to produce a piston rod by means of HSMmachining of an MMC material. The results have been extremely promising.When the machines have the correct settings with respect to spindlerotation speed, cutting speed, feeding of the tool, etc., the machiningresults have been good. As an example may be mentioned that the cost forforming a prototype of a piston rod performed in a MMC material to itsfinal shape on one hand by means of conventional methods and on theother hand by means of high speed machining has reduced the cost formanufacturing the piston rod by more than 40 times. By serial productionof MMC components according to the invention it is possible to reducethe cost even further.

Still other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomereadily apparent by those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription, wherein it is shown and described only the preferredembodiments of the invention, simply by way of illustration of the bestmode contemplated of carrying out the invention. As will be realized theinvention is capable of other and different embodiments, and its severaldetails are capable of modifications in various obvious respects,without departing from the invention. Accordingly, the description is tobe regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an example of an experimental work, where a piece of a MMCmaterial has been formed by means of high speed machining out of a rawmaterial.

FIG. 2 depicts an example of an engine piece, in this case a piston rod,produced by means of the method according to the present invention.

BEST AND VARIOUS MODES FOR CARRYING OUT INVENTION

A number of examples of experimental tests to evaluate the methodaccording to the present invention are described by reference to thefigures. FIG. 1 shows a flange 1 manufactured from a blank 2 made of aMMC material, where a mill has been used to remove all of the rawmaterial of the blank 2 around the prospective flange 1. The flange 1has in this case the shape of an L and has a final thickness of materialof 1 mm and a length of 45 and 15 mm, respectively for the sides of theL. The settings used for the machining are in this example: spindlespeed 15000 rpm, cutting speed 565 m/min and feeding speed 3000 mm/min.The time needed for forming the flange 1 according to FIG. 1 was 2.5minutes. The worn out time for the cutting tool amounts to hours. Thepiece according to the figure is made by a MMC material with a portionof 40% Silicon Carbide in the material.

Tests have also been performed by means of drilling in MMC material witha 40 percentage content of SiC. A number of holes with 6.9 mm HM-drillshave been made, where the spindle speed amounted to 15000 rpm and thefeeding speed to 3000 mm/min. The worn cut time for the drill was inthis case such that the drill lasts for use for up to 1000 drill holes.

FIG. 2 discloses an example of a piece for an engine, in this case apiston rod manufactured directly from a blank of MMC material which hasbeen machined to its final shape as a piston rod according to the figureby means of high speed machining according to the invention. The costfor producing a piston rod according to FIG. 2 and made in MMC materialis low at the same time as it shows the following advantages compared topiston rods made from other materials:

compared to steel: lower mass,

compared to titanium: lower mass, higher stiffness,

compared to aluminum: higher stiffness, higher yield point, higherendurance limit, coefficient of heat expansion equivalent to the steelof an adjoining crankshaft,

compared to fiber composite: lower price, isotropic properties,coefficient of heat expansion equivalent to the steel of an adjoiningcrankshaft.

By machining according to the method of the present invention, the goodresults have been achieved by use of cutting tools made from coated hardmetal with interior channel cooling and by use of diamond tools. By useof diamond tools the worn out times for the tools are long up to 40%carbide content of the MMC material. When the carbide content is as highas 70%, good results were still achieved.

The method according to the invention is applicable on all types ofcomponents which are to be manufactured from an MMC material, wheremachining is possible with respect to the final shape of the component.The method is thus not limited to the disclosed examples but may be usedfor all components, where a choice of MMC is advantageous. Some examplesthat may be mentioned are engine parts, mechanical structures forspacecrafts, mechanics for instruments, brake discs for vehicles, andthe like. Moreover, brake discs fabricated from MMC are advantageous inview of the low weight in comparison with steel, which contribute todecrease the rotational energy stored in the brake discs before aretardation, a condition that has a certain importance on trains, whereeach wheel shaft often is provided with a number of rotating brake discsmade by steel.

The foregoing description of the invention illustrates and describes thepresent invention. Additionally, the disclosure shows and describes onlythe preferred embodiments of the invention but, as mentioned above, itis to be understood that the invention is capable of use in variousother combinations, modifications, and environments and is capable ofchanges or modifications within the scope of the inventive concept asexpressed herein, commensurate with the above teachings and/or the skillor knowledge of the relevant art. The embodiments described hereinaboveare further intended to explain best modes known of practicing theinvention and to enable others skilled in the art to utilize theinvention in such, or other, embodiments and with the variousmodifications required by the particular applications or uses of theinvention. Accordingly, the description is not intended to limit theinvention to the form disclosed herein. Also, it is intended that theappended claims be construed to include alternative embodiments.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for manufacturing a component having apredetermined shape from a metal matrix composite material, the methodcomprising: machining with a cutting tool comprising a cutting edge ablank of the metal matrix composite material comprising 15% to 70%reinforcing content by high speed machining in which shearing forces aredecreasing with increasing cutting speed, the machining being effectiveto obtain the predetermined shape of the component.
 2. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the shearing forces as a function of cutting speedasymptotically approach zero.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the speedof the cutting tool machining the blank at a cutting point relative tothe blank is such that a chip formed as a result of the machininglocally floats at least momentarily at the cutting point.
 4. A methodaccording to claim 1 wherein the cutting tool comprises a memberselected from the group consisting of coated hard metal cutting edge, aboron nitride cutting edge and a diamond cutting edge.
 5. The method ofclaim 1 wherein the component is a component for track bound vehicles,trucks or cars.
 6. The method of claim 5 wherein the component is abrake disc or brake yoke.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein saidreinforcement is at least one member selected from the group consistingof silicon carbide, boron carbide and aluminum oxide.
 8. The method ofclaim 1 wherein said reinforcement is at least one member selected fromthe group consisting of silicon carbide, boron carbide and aluminumoxide.
 9. A method according to claim 1 wherein said reinforcement is acarbide.
 10. A method according to claim 1 wherein said reinforcement isa carbide.
 11. A method according to claim 1 wherein the MMC comprisesat least one base substance selected from the group consisting ofaluminum, titanium and alloys thereof.
 12. A method according to claim 1wherein the MMC comprises at least one base substance selected from thegroup consisting of aluminum, titanium and alloys thereof.
 13. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the component is a component for motorvehicles or for use in optical systems.
 14. The method of claim 13wherein the component is a fast moving engine part.
 15. The method ofclaim 13 wherein the component is a piston rod or crankshaft.